While at the NRA Convention in St. Louis, I talked with Top Shot finalist Gregory Littlejohn about his firearms background — this is what he had to say:

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Chris Reed, Top Shot from Season 2, helps high school friend

Raffling off an “Outlaw Custom" .308 Sniper Rifle

Everyone’s heard the local boy makes good story. Unfortunately for most, it usually ends with the boy forgetting his friends and leaving town. That’s not the case with Mississippi’s Chris Reed.

After winning the Season 2 of History Channel’s Top Shot, Reed has basically stayed the same. Sure there was a little more excitement when he arrived at the grocery store (that’s tapered off some since), but the essence of the man remains intact. Nothing brings that more to light then his devotion to high school friend Michael Spellman.

Michael was the youngest quarterback in the history of Mississippi to win a State High School Championship. Since then he found himself a wife, started a family and served his community as a Chief Deputy. He was also diagnosed with cancer. That’s where Reed came into play.

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St. Louis, Missouri - Two competitors were there to keep me up to speed on the ins and outs of History Channel's Top Shot this season: Terry Vaughan and Gabby Franco. Though Terry has proven to be as elusive as any British Commando, Gabby put herself front and center this month at the NRA Convention in St. Louis. I took the opportunity to learn more about the Venezuelan Olympian.

You won't believe how it all began.

"I started by dry firing for a year," said Franco.

A year. One full year of pulling the trigger only to hear a whack instead of a bang. Now she laughs about those simpler times, but they must have been maddening for an eleven year old. Yes she was small. And maybe like most children her age she'd ultimately move on to something else. After all, there is no way her father knew that trip to a Barquisimeto range would launch his little girl on such a journey.

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Pennsylvania's Malekovich makes the finals of Top Shot

A police commander, a financial advisor, an IT guy, a Civil War reenactor and a cop. Those were the final five heading into Top Shot's second to last episode last night on History Channel. With only two episode left in the season, it was time to pull off something big. Pull it off they did.

Starting the show with the traditional "nailing the target of the fallen to the wall" ceremony, competitors were delighted to discovered that a Browning M1919 was making an appearance. A belt-fed .30 caliber machine gun, the 1919, saw action all the way from World War II to Vietnam. To get them in the spirit of the gun, producers mounted the belt-fed on the back of a World War II M2A1 halftrack and let 'em go.

With fifteen targets scattered anywhere from 25 to 100 feet away, shooters were set loose on the M2A1 with 100 rounds of ammunition. As each competitor took to the field, they soon found that the Browning machine was not the most maneuverable of guns. Aim had to be precise and trigger control, well, trigger control would be of the utmost importance.

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There will be a complete rundown of Top Shot tomorrow, but for now … here are five quick thoughts on tonight's episode of the History Channel's blockbuster:

1. Tonight's challenge called for competitors to shoot a Browning 1919 machine-gun from the back of a World War II halftrack. And to think I dared to say the challenges were getting boring. Okay, just the last challenge, but this more then made up for it.
2. Greg Littlejohn, second up in the Browning 1919 challenge, hit 8 out of 15 targets with his 100 rounds of ammo to take the win. No matter what people thought of Littlejohn during the earlier episodes, he's grabbed the bull by the horns and become a heck of a threat.
3. With the vote standing at 3 for Augie and 1 for Gary, Augie decided to cause a little drama by putting a round through Kyle's target. Sure enough, Kyle dropped the tie breaking shot and joined Augie in elimination.

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St. Louis, Missouri - While running around on the final day of the NRA Convention in St. Louis, I was having trouble locating one of primary Annual Meeting interview targets: Top Shot Season 4's Gregory Littlejohn. With only a couple of hours left in the show, I reached out to my buddy Eric from Haus of Guns for a little help. A few minutes later, I found Greg and readied for the scoop from the towering giant of Season 4.

With a huge smile and sturdy handshake, we said our hellos and got right to the meat of things. To summarize, it was not a friendship bracelet. Then to the show.

"I applied too late for Season 3 so my application went straight to Season 4. I made it through the cuts, they invited me out for final casting, I made it through that and the next thing I know the invitation to the show arrived."

But it couldn't have been as easy as that. Couple of interviews and you're on the show? Please. There has to be more to it then that.

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St. Louis, Missouri - There were more than 73,000 faces dotting the landscape of the 2012 NRA Convention. Inside the America's Center Convention Complex were NRA members, hundreds of vendors and dozens of shooting stars. Some of those stars, as fate would have it, were from the History Channel blockbuster Top Shot.

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There was a let down Tuesday night on Top Shot. In successive weeks, NRAblog advisers Terry Vaughan and NRA Certified Instructor Gabby Franco were eliminated from the top rated History Channel program. Watching the show now is always like a Redskins fan (which I am) watching the NFL playoffs. Thankfully … there's still a couple of Tom Bradys and Joe Montanas in the mix. So here we go.

With a holstered FN Five-SeveN pistol at the ready, the remaining men rappelled down a thirty-foot structure. Stopping three times along the way, they approached a firing position, loaded the provided magazines, shot three targets and unloaded. With two firing positions located on each of the three levels, competitors were also required to unload before moving from one position to the other.

"It was pretty difficult for me," Top Shot contestant Chee Kwan said during the show. "I suck with ropes."

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We'll have a full rundown of the History Channel favorite tomorrow, but for now … here are five quick thoughts on tonight's episode of Top Shot:

1. It felt kind of boring at the beginning of the show. Is that because my regulars Gabby Franco and Terry Vaughan are no longer in the race or because William took the drama home when he was eliminated?
2. Challenge called for competitors to fire on eighteen targets while rappelling down a thirty foot structure. Gary, Chee and Augie each smacked into the building on the way down. Ouch.
3. Chee Kwan called for the opportunity to face the fire in the elimination round. Good for him. I'm always impressed when potential candidates in this show step up to the plate … too many hid their poor performance behind boisterous bravado.

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